Plastic Recyclothon, a Mumbai-based citizen-led initiative, has received the inaugural Cheistha Kochhar Nudge Awards 2026 for its environmental impact. The Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP), in partnership with the Cheistha Kochhar Foundation, hosted the inaugural Cheistha Kochhar Nudge Awards 2026.The awards honour the life and legacy of Cheistha Kochhar, a public policy professional committed to using behavioural insights and evidence-based policymaking to drive change.

Along with Plastic Recyclothon, ThinkZone, a project focused on digital parental engagement from Odisha, and NammaKasa, a public civic-tech platform from Bengaluru, received a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh to support their continued innovation.Plastic Recyclothon is a citizen-led initiative where people can donate their plastic waste. A volunteers pick it up free of cost from the closest drop location. Plastic Recyclothon then recycles the waste and converts it into benches, pencil boxes, garbage bins and other amenities for the use of common people.

The ceremony was graced by Dr. Ashok Lahiri, Hon’ble Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog, as the Chief Guest, alongside Guests of Honour Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag (Retd.), former Chief of the Army Staff and former High Commissioner of India to Seychelles, and Prof. (Dr.) Pulkit Khanna, Dean, Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences

On this occasion Dr. Ashok Lahiri said, “India’s next frontier in public policy is not merely designing better schemes, but designing schemes around how citizens actually behave. Nudges can help bridge this gap by subtly changing the way choices are presented without taking away individual freedom.” He highlighted the potential of behavioural audits, field experiments and digital public infrastructure to test, measure and rapidly scale interventions that work, making governance more citizen-centric, outcome-oriented and fiscally efficient.